DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION
NOVEMBER 25, 2024
MONDAY OF THE THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
(OPTIONAL MEMORIAL OF SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR)
FIRST READING
REVELATION 14:1-5 OR (REVELATION 21:5-7)
1 Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, 3 and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless.
The Word of the Lord
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
PSALMS 23(24):1-6 OR (PSALMS 124:2-5, 7-8)
Response: Such are the men who seek thy face, O Lord.
The earth is the LORD'S and the fulness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein;
for he has founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Such are the men who seek thy face, O Lord.
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false,
and does not swear deceitfully.
R. Such are the men who seek thy face, O Lord.
He will receive blessing from the LORD,
and vindication from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Such are the men who seek thy face, O Lord.
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GOSPEL
She put in all that she had
LUKE 21:1-4 OR (MATTHEW 10:28-33)
1 He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. 3 And he said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4 for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had."
The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION
DAILY QUOTE FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS
Mercy and compassion are never worthless, by Leo the Great (400-461 A.D)
"Although the spite of some people does not grow gentle with any kindness, nevertheless the works of mercy are not fruitless, and kindness never loses what is offered to the ungrateful. May no one, dearly beloved, make themselves strangers to good works. Let no one claim that his poverty scarcely sufficed for himself and could not help another. What is offered from a little is great, and in the scale of divine justice, the quantity of gifts is not measured but the steadfastness of souls. The "widow" in the Gospel put two coins into the "treasury," and this surpassed the gifts of all the rich. No mercy is worthless before God. No compassion is fruitless. He has given different resources to human beings, but he does not ask different affections."
(excerpt from Sermon 20.3.1)
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.